>Steven Lonegan, State Director, Americans for Prosperity NJ
Exposing the HOAX of Senate Bill One
Reference: The truth about Senate Bill One (1), hereafter referred to as S1. This bill falsely represents itself to abolish the radical Council on Affordable Housing a.k.a COAH.
The following excerpts from S1 debunk the claim that this legislation “abolishes” COAH. S1 actually creates a super bureaucracy that concentrates even more power and money with the State Planning Commission, hereafter referred to as the “Commission”.
S1 empowers the Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs with sweeping authority to “prioritize” LOW INCOME HOUSING projects and establish “rules” on the management of these projects, in essence establishing a “LOW INCOME HOUSING CZAR”.
I have cited specific passages from the bill and copied these passages directly to this memorandum, including short explanations. The passages speak for themselves. However, it is necessary to provide explanations for those legislators who will be voting on this bill, but appear to have some difficulty comprehending its actual meaning.
Please contact me if you require additional clarification.
The hoax that S1 “abolishes” COAH is exposed on page 1. The bill’s synopsis contains the following sentence in the first paragraph:
”1. (New section) The Council on Affordable Housing established by the Fair Housing Act is abolished, and all of its powers, functions and duties are continued in the State Planning Commission…”
Furthermore, the bill transfers every single prior act, rule and regulation ever promulgated by COAH to the State Planning Commission:
”Whenever, in any law rule, regulation, order, contract, document, judicial or administrative proceeding or otherwise; Reference is made to the Council on Affordable Housing the same shall mean and refer to the State Planning Commission.”
Money, your tax dollars, is the fuel the COAH fanatics need to advance their failed agenda. The following passage, also on page 1, clearly defines that all funding is intact:
”All appropriations and other money available and to become available to the Council on Affordable Housing are hereby continued in the commission, and shall be available for the objects and purposes for which such moneys are appropriated…”
These three simple passages from the first page of S1 expose the truth — COAH is simply being renamed. But that is not all. The newly constituted “State Planning Commission” becomes a hybrid super bureaucracy, even more dangerous than COAH as we know it.
I have stated S1 transforms the DCA Commissioner into a LOW INCOME HOUSING CZAR. This is proven in the following passages describing the Commissioner’s power. Start with the maintaining of the “Register” of LOW INCOME projects, this passage defines the term:
“Register” means The Register of Housing Projects directed by section 2 of this act to be established and maintained by the commissioner.”
The “Commissioner’s” power is expanded with the additional ability to “prioritize” these projects and force their implementation:
“The commissioner shall cause to be developed a system for assigning and designating priority ratings to each project included in the register. Priority ratings shall be based upon the following factors, giving to each factor such weight as the commissioner shall judge to be appropriate:”
The list of factors is long and complex and listed in detail in the bill. They include feasibility, distribution of units, desirability, size, etc. Ultimately, the commissioner has control over every aspect of the project. Under the term “desirability” the “Commissioner” could assume the authority to choose paint colors in the units. This is clearly a Low-Income Housing Czar.
